United States v. Board of Education

102 F.R.D. 873, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24328, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 900
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedAugust 15, 1984
DocketNo. 80 C 5124
StatusPublished

This text of 102 F.R.D. 873 (United States v. Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Board of Education, 102 F.R.D. 873, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24328, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 900 (N.D. Ill. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SHADUR, District Judge.

Now before this Court for decision is a motion by a group of petitioners (the “Applicants”) 1 seeking to intervene as parties to this action. To set the framework for that motion, a brief skeletal review of the prior proceedings will be useful.

[875]*875On September 24, 1980, the same day this action was filed, this Court entered a Consent Decree relating to the desegregation of the Chicago public schools. In January 1982 (in “Opinion I,” 554 F.Supp. 912) this Court held constitutional the desegregation plan (the “Plan”) developed by Chicago’s Board of Education (“Board”) in compliance with the Consent Decree. On June 30, 1983 (in “Opinion II,” 567 F.Supp. 272) this Court found the United States had violated its obligation under Consent Decree § 15.1 to:

find and provide every available form of financial resources adequate for the implementation of the desegregation plan.

As part of its contemporaneously filed order, this Court:

1. to sustain the status quo, enjoined the United States from spending or obligating certain funds; and
2. ordered the United States to fulfill its obligations under the Consent Decree.

On September 9, 1983 our Court of Appeals affirmed (1) this Court’s finding the United States had violated its Consent Decree obligation and (2) the injunction referred to in the preceding paragraph (“Opinion III,” 717 F.2d 378, 385). To afford the United States the opportunity to show its intended compliance with its contractual commitments, the Court of Appeals remanded the case for further proceedings. This Court then conducted an evidentiary hearing and ruled on June 8, 1984 (in “Opinion IV,” 588 F.Supp. 132, with its “Findings” and “Conclusions”):

1. Despite the opportunity afforded by the Court of Appeals, the United States had continued to act in violation of the Consent Decree.
2. Under Section 15.1 the United States is obligated “to make every good faith effort to find and provide ... $103,858 million” for the forthcoming school year (Conclusion 38).
3. This Court’s order restraining the obligation or spending of funds could be lifted when an order was entered in accordance with Opinion IV (Conclusion 118).

On July 13 this Court entered an order releasing certain funds from the restraining order, on Board’s motion, to allow other grantees to continue their operations through August 11.

At this point Applicants come into court in an attempt to convince this Court they are the most “worthy” grantees for the currently restrained funds. For the reasons stated in this memorandum opinion and order, leave to intervene—either as of right or as a matter of this Court’s discretion—is denied Applicants.

Intervention as of Right

To intervene as a matter of right under Fed.R.Civ.P. (“Rule”) 24(a)(2), Applicants must meet each of four conditions (United States v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago, 88 F.R.D. 679, 684 (N.D.Ill.1981)):

(1) The application must be timely.
(2) The applicant must claim an interest relating to the transaction that is the subject of the action.
(3) The applicant must show that its ability to protect that interest may as a practical matter be impaired or impeded by disposition of the action.
[876]*876(4) The applicant’s interest must not be adequately represented by the existing parties.

Because Applicants so clearly fail to meet the fourth requirement, there is no need to deal with the others.2

Applicants claim Secretary of Education (“Secretary”) has selected their programs, through an administrative process, to receive the now-restrained funds in the event this Court releases those funds back to Secretary. Even assuming Secretary has in fact made an administrative commitment to Applicants’ programs (not at all an established proposition, even on Applicants’ own factual submissions), Applicants’ interest is fully represented by the United States.

At each and every court appearance and filing, the United States has consistently and vigorously argued that all the funds currently subject to this Court’s restraining order should be returned to Secretary’s discretion.3 Yet that is precisely the result Applicants desire. Nothing would be added by allowing another entity to advance the same argument to the same end. United States v. South Bend Community School Corp., 710 F.2d 394, 396 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 104 S.Ct. 1707, 80 L.Ed.2d 181 (1984).

Applicants contend the Executive Branch has a “secret agenda” to dismantle Title IV programs, thus making the United States antagonistic to them and unable to represent their interests adequately. What Applicants miss is that their claims are entirely derivative from that of the United States in any event. See Meridian Homes, 683 F.2d at 204. Only if the United States is successful here will the funds become available to Secretary, either to honor his claimed commitments to Applicants or to subvert them by his alleged secret agenda.4 If the latter were to prove the case after the United States were successful in its position before this Court, that would be the potential subject of another lawsuit— not this one. In sum, Applicants have utterly failed to show why the United States does not adequately represent their interests in this action.

Permissive Intervention

To support permissive intervention under Rule 24(b)(2), Applicants must show (1) their claim and the main action have a common question of law or fact and (2) intervention will not unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties. As in the prior discussion, Applicants founder on the last criterion.

Applicants would have this Court embroil itself in lengthy proceedings to determine the most deserving recipients of limited federal dollars. Except for the United States’ binding obligation under the Consent Decree, that value judgment is for Secretary—not this Court—to make. And were it impermissibly undertaken by this Court, it would carry this lawsuit far afield from its present (and proper) purpose.

[877]*877This Court’s involvement on the funding issue is limited to determining the appropriate remedy for the United States’ violation of its contractual commitment under the Consent Decree. To answer the wholly ancillary question Applicants seek to thrust upon this Court would substantially delay the proceedings necessary to deal with the problems properly at issue.

True enough, any remedy this Court must impose to alleviate the harm caused by the United States’ cavalier attitude toward its freely-undertaken obligations will undoubtedly impact on other people and programs. But that can be true in every situation where one party is required to make another party whole.

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102 F.R.D. 873, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24328, 20 Educ. L. Rep. 900, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-board-of-education-ilnd-1984.